The present invention pertains to ultrasonic diagnostic systems, and, in particular, to a portable ultrasound diagnostic instrument which may be readily transported on site or between sites.
Conventional ultrasound imaging systems are large, bulky instruments. Such systems typically comprise a transducer connected by a cable to a large, rack mounted unit that contains the processing and display components. The customary focus of such existing systems is to provide sophisticated signal processing and computing power to achieve the highest possible image quality. However, these large and complex types of systems are not sufficiently portable for convenient use in many applications, and further not all potential uses of ultrasound technology require all of the features with which these systems have been equipped, often at significant increased cost.
As a result of advances in the underlying technology which have permitted miniaturization of necessary electronics, the ultrasound industry continues to reduce the size and weight of available diagnostic equipment. The smaller and lighter equipment has improved portability such that in many cases the ultrasound equipment can be easily brought to the patient for diagnostic purposes instead of the patient being required to come to the ultrasound equipment. However, and while perhaps useful, existing portable ultrasound technology is not without its limitations.
One shortcoming of some portable systems is that the need to hold onto or otherwise manipulate the equipment with both hands during use hinders the ability of a person to productively use the system in some situations. For example, a system shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,658 includes a lap top computer with the capability of displaying ultrasound images obtained with a handheld scan head. In practice, in order to ensure the display is visible at all times during the obtaining of the ultrasound images with the scan head, the user must either hold the lap top computer, or rearrange the computer on the surface on which it sits to face the user who may be moving around to position the scan head in a suitable location. A user may be forced to move about repeatedly in some situations, such as during veterinary ultrasound examinations when a larger animal or a reluctant animal is being examined. As a result, the system user's hand not being used to manipulate the scan head is often nonetheless occupied and not always free to assist with the medical procedure.
Other portable ultrasound systems, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,722,412 and 5,738,099, integrate the display and the transducer in the same unit. While in essence permitting the scan head and the display to be held in one hand, these systems suffer from a different shortcoming. In particular, in order for the ultrasound user to get the desired view, it is frequently necessary to move the transducer repeatedly to different regions of the patient and to different orientations. In so doing, the displays of these systems may not be sufficiently visible to a user unless that user moves about, possibly into awkward positions.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a portable ultrasound system which overcomes these and other shortcomings of the prior art.